Official blog of the Sacramento Progressive Alliance, one of the largest and most vibrant progressive activist groups in California with more than 8,000 members. We educate and mobilize Progressives in Sacramento, the surrounding foothill areas, and at Sac State and Folsom Lake College.

Monday, December 21, 2015

Protesters Rally Against Western States Petroleum Association, Oil Caucus

by Dan
Bacher

On
December 10, 350 Sacramento and Rootskeeper.org co-sponsored a Day of Action
in Sacramento with the theme "How the Grinches Stole Climate
Justice."

The
event, held on the last day of the Paris Climate Talks, started with a rally by
over 40 people on the West Steps of the Capitol. The Raging Grannies opened and
closed the march with their songs against fracking and Big Oil.

Speakers
at the rally included Chris Brown of Sacramento 350, Jessica Wohlander from the
Rootskeeper, Valarie Martin of Californians for Green Energy and others. I
spoke about the power of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) in
California.

The
event featured the Grinch holding a list of members of the "Oil
Caucus" of the State Legislature, the 20 Democrats who voted to weaken SB
350 during the last session.

After
the rally, the group marched over to the Western States Petroleum office on K
Street to protest the Big Oil Lobby buying legislators' votes. Protesters wore
red to represent the "drawing line" for justice because "Nature
doesn't compromise, Justice can't be compromised, and Politics must respect
these limits," according to an announcement from the groups.

Below is
the transcript of my speech at the State Capitol:

The Five
Ways Big Oil and WSPA Capture California’s Regulators

by Dan
Bacher

What is
the Western States Petroleum (WSPA)? It’s the trade association for the oil
industry and the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying organization in
the California. It represents a who’s who of oil companies ranging from Chevron
to Occidental Petroleum.

The
companies that WSPA represents account for the bulk of petroleum exploration,
production, refining, transportation and marketing in the five western states
of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. (http://www.wspa.org)

WSPA and
Big Oil wield their power 5 ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending;
(3) getting appointed to positions on and influencing regulatory panels; (4)
creating Astroturf groups: and (5) working in collaboration with media.

1. Lobbying:

The
biggest-ever gusher of Big Oil lobbying money into the state in one quarter was
from July 1 to September 30, 2015. This resulted in the gutting/amending or the
defeat of every bill that the oil industry opposed in the last session of the
State Legislature.

WSPA set
a new record for spending in one quarter when it spent an amazing $6,750,666.60
lobbying state officials in the third quarter of 2015 to lobby against Senate
Bill 350, Senate Bill 32 and other environmental bills it opposed. The total
spent by the oil industry in the third quarter was an unprecedented $11
million.

That
$17.7 million includes approximately $9.3 million from WSPA, $3.3 million from
Chevron and $5.1 million from Exxon, Valero and other oil companies.

With
help from the "Oil Caucus," a group of Big Oil friendly Democrats,
the oil industry was successful at halting other important bills aimed at
better regulating its practices. These included AB 356 (Williams), SB 248
(Pavley), and SB 484 (Allen), which would have reformed the state’s Underground
Injection Control (UIC) program by requiring disclosure of chemicals used in
well treatments or injections; ensuring that oil and gas projects do not
contaminate aquifers containing water suitable for drinking and irrigation;
requiring the State Water Board to review aquifer exemption applications;
and/or requiring the shutdown of illegal injection wells if regulators fail to
shut them down.

The
industry also notably stopped a bill to protect the coast from oil spills, SB
788, McGuire, despite the fact that California is still recovering from the May
2015 Refugio oil spill.

2.
Campaign Spending.

The past
year saw the Rise of “Oil Caucus” – a group of Assembly members including Henry
Perea, who received $24,200 from Big Oil, Adam Gray, who received $23,400 and
Jim Cooper, who received ($24,200).

Big Oil
dumped a lot of money into local and regional campaigns. In 2014, Chevron alone
spent $3 million (unsuccessfully) to elect their selected candidates to the
Richmond City Council. The oil industry also dumped $7.6 million into defeating
a measure calling for a fracking ban in Santa Barbara County and nearly $2
million into an unsuccessful campaign to defeat a measure banning fracking and
other extreme oil extraction techniques in San Benito County during the
November 2014 election.

Big Oil
officials serve on regulatory panels and commissions. For example, the WSPA
President, Catherine Reheif- Boyd, chaired the Marine Life Protection Act
(MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create "marine protected
areas" in Southern California from 2009 to 2012 - and served on the task
forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast or North Coast from 2004 to
2012. (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa/brtf_bios_sc.asp)\

While
she oversaw the crafting "marine protected areas" that fail to
protect the ocean from pollution, fracking, oil drilling, military testing,
corporate aquaculture and all human impacts other than sustainable fishing and
gathering, her husband, James Boyd, was chair of the California Energy
Commission. (http://www.energy.ca.gov/commissioners/boyd.html‎)

Big Oil
also gets its buddies in key positions. In November 2011, Governor Brown fired
two regulators, Derek Chernow, acting director of Department of Conservation,
and his deputy, Elena Miller. Brown replaced Chernow with Mark Nechodom to
expedite permits in Kern County,

Nechodom,
in turn resigned this summer the day after Central Valley farmers filed a RICO
lawsuit alleging that Governor Jerry Brown's office ordered the California
Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources ("DOGGR") to approve
permits to inject contaminated water in violation of the Safe Drinking Water
Act.

Not only
does Big Oil spend millions every year on lobbying and campaign contributions,
but it funds "Astroturf" campaigns to eviscerate environmental
laws.

Leaked
documents provided to Northwest Public Radio, Business Week, and other media
outlets last year exposed a campaign by the Western States Petroleum Association
to fund and coordinate a network of “astroturf” groups to oppose environmental
laws and local campaigns against fracking in California, Washington, and
Oregon. This network was revealed in a PowerPoint presentation from a November
11, 2014 presentation to the Washington Research Council, given by
Reheis-Boyd.

Nor will
you see mainstream media coverage of how the Los Angeles Times and the
California Resources Corporation, an Occidental Petroleum spinoff, recently
teamed up to create "Powering California," a Big Oil propaganda
campaign website. (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/10/31/18779478.php)

Clean
Energy California broke the story on their twitter page when they published an
October 27 tweet from Western States Petroleum Association President Catherine
Reheis-Boyd promoting the new site.

Big Oil
is the most powerful lobby in the state. However, action by committed activists
can defeat Big Oil in spite of its money and power, as in the case of the
Richmond City Council elections and the passage of anti-fracking ordinances in
San Benito counties.

Feel the Bern!

Join Us on Facebook!

Join our Email list!

Search This Blog

Mission Statement

Welcome to the PROGRESSIVE ALLIANCE. We are a multi-racial, multi-issue "rainbow coalition" dedicated to social justice, peace and building progressive power. Our key priorities include economic justice; equal rights and equal opportunities for all regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation; international solidarity; humanitarian service; eradicating poverty at home and abroad; environmental protection and sustainable development; and electing progressives to public office and then holding them accountable.

Founded in 2005, we have grown to more than 7,000 members and have emerged as one of the largest and most grassroots activist groups in California. We are proud to serve as a local chapter Our Revolution, the national movement inspired by Bernie Sanders' historic 2016 Presidential Campaign, and as a local affiliate of United for Peace & Justice (UFPJ), a network of several hundred peace and justice groups from all over the world.

United for Peace & Justice

unitedforpeace.org

United for Peace & Justice

DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA

America's Democratic Socialist Voice

Keep the Dream Alive!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

El Dorado County Democrats

Progressive Democrats of America

pdamerica.org

Close the School of Assassins!

SOA Watch

Rainbow Push Coalition

Rebuild the Dream

Van Jones

Occupy Sacramento

Check out Occupy Sac on Facebook

Take Class Action! April 13th, 2011

Sac State Students Demand Quality, Affordable Education

Malcolm X

"Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression”

Solidarity with Wisconsin Workers!

An Injury to One is an Injury to All

Amy Goodman

Democracy Now!

The People's Historian

W.E.B. Du Bois

Scholar, Educator, Freedom Fighter

Donate or Pay Annual Dues

!Si Se Puede!

Dolores Huerta & Cesar Chavez

Sen. Paul Wellstone

"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them."